PARADISE — The Chico High wrestling team proved on Wednesday night that it's still the team to beat in the Eastern Athletic League and Northern Section.

The four-time defending EAL North champs rallied from 12 points down in the final four weight classes to defeat Paradise on the road, 34-27, spoiling the Bobcats' home league opener.

"I scored this match several ways and knew it was going to be close," Bobcats coach Dan Nelson said. "There were some pins in there that really hurt us."

The most significant pin for Chico came at 160 pounds, when Jerome Munoz, who moved up in weight filling in for the injured Cordero Rios, floored Paradise's Chris Water 5 minutes, 4 seconds into the match.

"The kid we put in, Jerome Munoz, he's going to be our 152-pounder, and he is a gutsy, gutsy kid," Chico coach Keith Rollins said. "All season long we see him come up with pins in the third period — he'll be in close matches — and he'll pin a guy in the third period. He's just an outstanding kid, so not having Cordero tonight was hard, but then you got a great guy behind him."

The victory — Chico's first of four straight in the final four matches — trimmed the 12-point deficit down to six.

Chico grappler Caleb Jorgenson followed up with a 3-2 win over Keefer Fulton, who came in ranked No. 1 in his class among section grapplers, in the 170-pound match. Then in the 182-pound division, Aaron Bates gave the Panthers their first lead since early in the meet at 28-27 after a major decision over Paradise's Ryan Worthington.

Then it was to Sam Miller, the second-ranked 182-pounder in the section, to close it out for Chico in the final match of the night at 195 pounds.

Miller accomplished the feat with a first-period pin on Drew Hunsaker to help the Panthers draw first blood on the Bobcats in the EAL.

"I can't believe the amount of upsets both ways tonight," Rollins said. "I told coach Nelson 'If you would have wrote this duel down on paper, you would have never wrote it the way it was scored.' I would have never predicted (Joe) Kovack to beat Izzy Welch at 220 and Joseph Moure had a huge win at 145. It was a crazy match and it didn't look good for us, then obviously our second half of our lineup just exploded."

The two schools won't meet again until the league championships Feb. 9.

"We've got to win the league tournament now if we want to win another league championship, which means we have to come ahead of Chico," Nelson said. "I feel this team can do that, barring injuries (because) we still think we're going to be better at the end of the year."

Paradise won't return to competition until next week when it hosts Oroville in an EAL dual meet on Jan. 16. Action is set for 7 p.m. or after the conclusion of the junior varsity match in Paradise.

Up next for Chico is the Under Armour Sutter Invite, which Rios, who's currently ranked 19th in the state, according to TheCaliforniaWrestler.com, won't participate in, Rollins said.

"We're going to sit him this weekend, and we'll probably sit him next week for a dual at Las Plumas," Rollins said. "Then we're going to wrestle him again at Tim Brown in Sacramento."